Henry McIver

Henry McIver
Bornc. 1841
Virginia, United States
Died1907
Allegiance Britain
Italy
Don Carlos
Confederate States of America
Second Mexican Empire
Kingdom of Greece
Serbia
Branch
 East India Company
 Confederate States Army
Conflicts
Indian Rebellion of 1857
Expedition of the Thousand
Second Carlist War
American Civil War
Second French intervention in Mexico
Cretan revolt (1866–1869)
Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

Henry Douglas McIver (c. 1841–1907) was an American mercenary who fought for 18 countries during the nineteenth-century.

Early life

McIver was born in about 1841. He spent first ten years of his life in Virginia, United States, and then he was sent to his uncle, General Donald Graham, to finish school and prepare for West Point. Instead of West Point, McIver joined the private army of the East India Company when he was only 16 years old.

Career

He was sent to India in 1858. At that time, the Sepoy Mutiny raged in India and during battle, McIver was seriously wounded by a tulmar blow to his skull.[1]

In 1860, McIver fought under Giuseppe Garibaldi in Italy, and after that joined the pretender for the Spanish crown, Don Carlos.

When the American Civil War broke out, Henry McIver joined the Confederate side. Although he was only 20 years old at the time he was already an experienced soldier. While fighting for the Confederates, he was under the command of three famous Confederate generals: Jackson, Stewart and Smith. He was wounded in the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862.[2]

At the end of the war, he allegedly challenged a Union officer, Major Tomlin, to a duel, which he won, running Tomlin through the body.[3] When the Confederacy capitulated, McIver fled to Mexico, where he joined Emperor Maximilian in fighting Juárez’s rebels.

In Mexico he was captured by Indians, and escaped three months later by swimming across the Rio Grande. He fought at Monterrey, and for his deeds received the title of count. When the Juárez rebellion was successful, Maximilian was executed, and McIver fled to Tampico, where he boarded a ship and left for South America.

McIver later sought to fight for Greece against the Turks alongside Bennet Burleigh in the Great Cretan Revolution of 1866–1869. Richard Harding Davis reports:[4]

On his return to Glasgow, MacIver foregathered with an old friend, Bennett Burleigh, whom he had known when Burleigh was a lieutenant in the navy of the Confederate States. Although today known as a distinguished war correspondent, in those days Burleigh was something of a soldier of fortune himself, and was organizing an expedition to assist the Cretan insurgents against the Turks. Between the two men it was arranged that MacIver should precede the expedition to Crete and prepare for its arrival. The Cretans received him gladly, and from the provisional government he received a commission in which he was given “full power to make war on land and sea against the enemies of Crete, and particularly against the Sultan of Turkey and the Turkish forces, and to burn, destroy, or capture any vessel bearing the Turkish flag.”

McIver then went to Athens and was given the role to fight against brigands alongside Colonel Panos Koronaios in Thessaly, which he did.[4] Those brigands were recruited and directed by the Turks, who permitted them to enter Greece without disturbance, and on their return afforded them protection.[5][6] McIver was later recommended for the highest Greek decoration for his service.[4]

In the War of 1877-1878, McIver offered his services to the Serbians, initially being commissioned a colonel of volunteers and later rising to the rank of general and overall cavalry commander of the Serbian contingents.[7][8]

In 1883, McIver organized a company for British colonization of New Guinea; the project had to be abandoned in 1884 after failing to gain the approval of the Earl of Derby.

Death

McIver died in 1907.

References

  1. ↑ Wright, William (2011). A Tidy Little War: The British Invasion of Egypt 1882. The History Press. p. 1864. ISBN 9780752475844.
  2. ↑ L'Estrange 1884, pp. 177–180, 184.
  3. ↑ "A Duel in Mississippi". New York Daily-Tribune. 6 April 1866.
  4. 1 2 3 Davis, R. H. (1912). Real soldiers of fortune. C. Scribner's Sons.
  5. ↑ Gondicas, D., & Issawi, C. (Eds.) (1999). Ottoman Greeks in the age of nationalism: Politics, economy, and society in the nineteenth century. The Darwin Press
  6. ↑ "Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1870: Mr. Tuckerman to Mr. Fish". Office of the Historian. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
  7. ↑ Davis 1906, p. 235.
  8. ↑ "General of Serbian calvary Henry MacIver". Serbum. Archived from the original on 1 June 2014.

Sources

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